This invention is directed generally to the automated feeding apparatus art and more specifically to an improved intake cup for directing and metering the flow of feed from a feed supply conduit to a moving feed conveyor.
Automated feeding apparatus and intake cups of the type here involved are commonly used in large-scale commercial poultry raising operations requiring extensive mechanization and automation to feed large stocks of poultry in relatively large poultry houses. In egg producing or layer operations, the birds are normally individually confined in cages so that feed can be delivered economically both at desired intervals of time and in accurate rationed amounts. To facilitate these feeding operations, a back-to-back, rows of cages, and an automated feeding system adapted thereto, is generally preferred. Such a cage arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,055 and a feeding system capable of use therewith is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,495,894 (hereinafter referred to as the '894 patent).
The '894 patent shows a feeding system using feed troughs extending in front of each row of adjacent bird cages. Feed in the troughs is delivered by way of auger-like helical conveying elements located inside the feed troughs being axially driven to transport feed from a system of supply conduits into the troughs. Preferably, the feed troughs for each of the two rows of bird cages located in a single tier of the pyramidal cage arrangement are interconnected, thereby allowing the helical conveying elements within the troughs to be formed in a continuous loop and be driven by a single sprocket and motor situated along its path.
As indicated above, it is desired to deliver feed rations which are accurate and uniform both in quantity and quality to each poultry-containing cage. That is, each bird should receive a certain amount of each constituent of the feed mix, and the relative amounts of each constituent should not be varied excessively throughout the delivered rations. However, it is known that the heavier or more dense feed constituents tend to fall to the bottom of the conveyor or trough as the feed is advanced therealong. Additionally, birds tend to pick off the upper layers of feed from the trough, so that the feed may tend to be "picked over" by the birds at or near the upstream or delivery end of the conveyor system prior to reaching the birds downstream.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,230, (hereinafter referred to as the '230 patent) shows at least two improvements to the '894 patent. First, complementary angled or tilted faces of the helical conveying element on the one hand and of the sprocket or gear-like drive member on the other hand are provided, such that the helical conveying element slowly rotates as it is driven in a generally axial fashion by the rotating gear or sprocket, thereby maintaining a constant mixing of the feed during delivery.
Secondly, the '230 patent prevents birds from "picking over" the feed until the feed has been delivered to all the cages by placing the helical conveying element in the trough such that the birds are prohibited by the axial advancement thereof from reaching therethrough to the feed being transported in the trough.
It will be recognized that in a conveyor system of the foregoing type, further improvement can be had by insuring that a relatively constant flow or amount of feed is delivered to the helical conveying element during advancement thereof for feed distribution around the system. To this end, U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,623 discloses an intake cup apparatus comprising a housing extending around a portion of an auger-like conveyor element and having a feed metering gate structure mounted interiorly of the housing to direct and control the rate of flow of feed into the conveyor element.